Nikon Coolpix S9 Review

Ease of Use

The Nikon Coolpix S9 is a very eye-catching camera, with
its slim, "wave-design" profile, non-zooming lens
and large 2.5 inch LCD screen. The wave design basically means
that the camera is thinner at one end than the other. At 9cms
wide and 2cms deep, the Nikon Coolpix S9 will fit into your
trouser or shirt pocket without too much trouble. The all-metal
body of the Coolpix S9 has an understated matt silver finish,
with the sides of the body in a more glossy silver. The Nikon
Coolpix S9's weight is quite light for this class of camera
at 115g.

The Nikon Coolpix S9 is very well-made overall, although
there are a couple of external controls that aren't particularly
well designed. The On/Off button is very small and recessed,
which may prevent the camera from being accidentally turned
on, but also makes it difficult to operate. Similarly the
One-Touch Portrait Button is also too small and recessed.
The Zoom lever is, yes you've guessed it, a little too small,
making it fiddly to use when you're in a rush to take a photo.
Otherwise the Nikon Coolpix S9 is designed and built very
well.

The Nikon Coolpix S9 is not overly complex in terms of the
number of external controls that it has. I counted just 10
controls in total, which suits the small dimensions and point
and shoot nature of the camera. The majority of the controls
are clearly labeled and common to most cameras, although the
Nikon-specific icons will have you reaching for the manual.
As this is a style-focused camera, most of the key photographic
options, such as ISO speed, exposure compensation and white
balance, are buried within the menu system, rather than accessible
via external buttons, which slows down the operation of the
camera. The large 2.5 inch screen only has 153,600 pixels,
resulting in a slightly grainy image, although the 170 degree
viewing angle makes it easy to share your images with friends
and family.

Navigation Pad

Shooting/Play Button
/ Mode Button / Thumb Grip

Nikon have introduced a new menu system for their 2006 Coolpix's,
and very good it is too. The main menu system on the Nikon
Coolpix S9 is straight-forward to use and is accessed by pressing
the Menu button on the rear of the camera. You can choose
either an icon or text-based system. The text menu for the
Shooting mode has 2 screens with 10 options in total. The
icon system shows all the options on a single screen and is
the method that I preferred. Due to the large 2.5 inch LCD
screen and restricting the number of on-screen choices to
five (in the text version), the various options and icons
are clear and legible. There is also a built-in Help system,
accessed by pressing the Telephoto zoom button, which gives
a brief but useful explanation for each option.

If you have never used a digital camera before, or you're
upgrading from a more basic model, reading the easy-to-follow
manual before you start is a good idea. Thankfully Nikon have
chosen to supply it in printed format, rather than as a PDF
on a CD, so you can also carry it with you. The LCD screen
is the only way of framing your shots, so if you have to have
an optical viewfinder, look elsewhere now. The various icons
used to represent the camera settings are clear and legible,
although you can only toggle the information on and off via
the Setup menu option.

As well as the basic menu system outlined above, Nikon have
also added a Mode button to the Coolpix S9, which offers further
options for both the Shooting and Playback modes. These options
are presented as a circle of icons which are then selected
by pressing the navigation pad arrows on the rear of the camera.
In Shooting mode, pressing the Mode button allows you to choose
from the various scene presets, voice recording, movies, and
the standard shooting mode. Playback mode options are listed
further down this page. The way in which you choose the 11
scene modes is a little tricky though - you have to press
the Mode button and choose Scene, which returns you to the
shooting display, and then press the Menu button to access
and select the scene modes.

Battery Compartment

Memory Card Slot

The Nikon Coolpix S9 offers the now well-established D-Lighting
and Face Priority AF features. Face Priority AF is accessed
by selecting the Scene option on the shooting mode dial, pressing
the Menu button and then choosing the Portrait (Face AF) option
on the top row. Alternatively there's a One-Touch Portrait
Button on top of the camera which automatically activates
In-Camera Red-Eye Fix and Face-Priority AF modes. It works
well if the subject is looking directly at the camera and
quite central in the frame, but in most other situations the
camera hunts for focus for several seconds and then tends
to focus somewhere other than the subject's face. I suspect
that most users will quickly lose patience with this feature,
as will the person who is being photographed! D-Lighting lightens
under-exposed parts of the image whilst ensuring that correctly
exposed parts remain the same (and are not also lightened)
- more on this feature in the Image
Quality section.

The start-up time from turning the Nikon Coolpix S9 on to
being ready to take a photo is fairly quick at around 2 seconds.
Zooming from the widest focal length to the longest takes
about 2.5 seconds. Focusing is quick in good light and the
camera achieves focus almost all of the time indoors or in
low-light situations, helped by the focus-assist lamp. The
visibility and refresh rate of the 2.5 inch LCD screen are
adequate, with some visible grain. It takes about 2 seconds
to store an image, allowing you to keep shooting as they are
being recorded onto the memory card, with a very brief LCD
blackout between each image. The Nikon Coolpix S9 has an average
Continuous mode which enables you to take 1.7 frames per second
at the highest JPEG image quality. The flash recycle time
is a little annoying, at about 5 seconds before you can take
another photo with flash. Overall the Nikon Coolpix S9 is
average in terms of operational speed.

Once you have captured a photo, the Nikon Coolpix S9 has
an adequate range of options for playing, reviewing and managing
your images. You can scroll through the images that you have
taken, view thumbnails, zoom in and out up to 10x magnification,
view slideshows, delete, protect, copy, create a small version
of an image and set the print order. You can press the Mode
button to play back an audio file. D-Lighting can be applied
to a copy of an image via the One Touch Portrait button. Annoyingly
you can't view detailed information such as the ISO rating
and aperture / shutter speed, and there is no histogram available
during playback or when you are taking a photo. You can only
choose between the detailed information, gridlines to aid
composition and no information via the Setup menu.

In summary the Nikon Coolpix S9 is a stylish, compact, point
and shoot digital camera that is easy to use, without really
excelling at anything in particular.

PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Nikon Coolpix S9 have
been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.

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